Wembley way open for Morris

Wembley is on the verge of appointing a chief executive. Andrew Morris led a joint management and private-equity buyout of the Earls Court exhibition centre in 1999, spending five years as its chief executive before engineering the £245m sale of the facility.

Morris, who is currently unattached to any company, is the only candidate left in the running and has a second interview with the Football Association's chairman, Lord David Triesman, and his the Wembley board member, David Bernstein, in the coming days.

Should Morris decide to accept the £400,000-a-year role, he will take over a business in far healthier financial shape than it was 18 months ago, even though the stadium has not been filled during recent England friendlies. With several long-term deals to host major events, the one sticking point could be that Morris will not see what value he can add to the national stadium.

Morris's path to Wembley is clear after the O2 Arena's chief executive, Phil Beard, withdrew. By doing so, Beard has emerged as a leading candidate for the vacancy as chief executive of England's 2018 World Cup bid.

The £250,000-a-year position of chief executive of the bid company was only advertised for the first time yesterday but Beard already has a strong chance of being nominated for the role.

Added to the fact that the FA was impressed enough with his CV to put him on a two-man Wembley shortlist, Beard has close links with senior 2018 figures. He worked closely with Sir Keith Mills as marketing director of the London 2012 Olympic bid, after being recruited from Mills' Air Miles company.

Association will meet James DeGale before the end of next week in an attempt to counter the heady offers the Olympic middleweight champion has received from professional promoters. And as it works to bring on board a commercial partner to boost its boxers' earnings, the ABA will point to the knockout of Amir Khan on Saturday night as evidence that more can be learned in an amateur apprenticeship. Although the short-term rewards of turning pro would undoubtedly be greater, the ABA believes a successful defence for DeGale in London in 2012 would enable him to name his price with the promoters. "Amir's taken a backwards step over the past four years in terms of opponents," said the ABA's chief executive, Paul King. "Some of them were dead bodies. If our boys stay they will have a four-year apprenticeship regularly fighting world-class opposition."

Dein leaves bitter taste

David Dein's departure from Red & White Holdings presages another round of hostility between the Arsenal board and Alisher Usmanov's investment vehicle. Dein left R&W on Saturday over the "legacy issues" he had with the Arsenal directors who still loathe him after he was summarily sacked from his position as the club's vice-chairman 18 months ago. Although R&W was pleased with Dein for delivering close to 25% of the club's equity in 12 months there was no sentimentality as he left it with a year remaining on his contract as chairman. Usmanov clearly wants a rapprochement with the club but the board will not yield to the Russian, prompting fresh off-the-field turmoil for the north London club.

Allott's Red Rose reprieve

Paul Allott has been offered a reprieve at Lancashire after falling out with the club's board in 2003. The Sky Sports commentator and former Lancashire and England fast bowler has been co-opted back on to the cricket committee he was voted off five years ago after disparaging the then captain, John Crawley. There could be tensions between Allott and Bob Bennett, the former chairman who replaced him on the committee and explicitly linked Allott's outspoken comments with his ousting at the club's AGM that year.

Ellis eats humble pie

Two remarkable, unheard-of occurrences came to pass at the Paralympic Games in Beijing yesterday. The first was Kate Ellis (left), Australia's minister for sport, donning a British team shirt after losing a bet with her British counterpart, Gerry Sutcliffe, when her country finished lower in the Olympic medals table last month. The second was an Australian, Ellis again, saying: "I'll eat a little humble pie."

About this article

Football: Wembley way open for Andrew Morris

This article appeared on p2 of the Sport section of the Guardian
on Monday 8 September 2008.
It was published on
the Guardian website
at 19.01 EDT on Monday 8 September 2008.
It was last modified at 19.42 EDT on Monday 8 September 2008.
It was first published at 19.42 EDT on Monday 8 September 2008.